The mountain stood like a monolith in the middle of the jungle, its shadow looming over Ye Mo.
This mountain had two facets, on the back where was supposed to be located the secret cave, there were only stark rocks and steep cliffs devoid of any vegetation until its peak.
With his abilities Ye Mo could still climb on this side until he reached the cave, his strength and endurance were more than enough for this kind of task, however, he chose to take the path that faced him.
On the other side of the mountain where he stood, it was full of verdant greenery, with trees tenaciously clinging to the inclined earth and plants of various colors swaying with the mountain breeze.
Ye Mo walked on a sinuous pathway that climbed all the way towards the peak, making turns around the mountain.
Through this, he could also attain the cave of pure iridescent iron, although the path was much longer, but between climbing and running here on the ground, he would arrive at his destination at the same time and this way, he wasn't put in a precarious situation.
After all, it was the wilderness, what if he was suddenly attacked by some flying blood beast while climbing? Progressing on the earth was much safer.
Ye Mo advanced and met some animals on his way, sometimes they were ordinary deers or bears and other times they were low-level blood beasts.
Standing at rank 1 low and mid-tier at most, they didn't pose any danger to him.
Even well-trained mortals could lay traps and deal with them or escape, much less him.
Ye Mo kept moving on the path that went in circle around the mountain and arrived on the other side, where falling to his death was just one misstep away.
There, the road was narrow and standing at hundreds of meters high, he had to stick his back against the mountain wall and walk sideways to not fall, progressing with a great view of a large part of the jungle as a precipice welcomed him.
After ascending nearly three quarters of the mountain, Ye Mo arrived beside two boulders separated by a cavern.
"There is no mistake, I am on the backside of the mountain close to the area marked by the map, it must be this cave Wei Leng talked about." Ye Mo's heart fluttered slightly, but he contained his enthusiasm.
Only after retrieving the pure iridescent iron can he claim success.
Actually, he raised his guard even more as he walked inside.
The interior grew darker the more he progressed in the cavern, with his sight growing increasingly useless, he focused on his heightened senses to detect any movement in his surroundings.
He kept advancing, one step after the other, to the point he couldn't perceive the bright entrance he came from anymore.
Only black darkness surrounded him.
Ye Mo continued forward, slowly edging into the darkness.
In this space, he couldn't distinguish the time passing or the distance covered, he just kept moving, driven by his goal.
At some point, he started to discern some light far ahead.
The light was faint, but it grew clearer as he approached.
After a few seconds, Ye Mo arrived in a large enclosure.
"I don't know how long I have walked, but I should be around the heart of the mountain now." Ye Mo thought, taking a look at the area.
On the walls and the ceiling were many chunks of iron scintillating faintly and lighting the place.
This iron seemed like an illusion, changing colors depending on the perspective from which you looked at it.
"Finally, the pure iridescent iron, but..." Ye Mo frowned, "Wei Leng clearly exaggerated the tale to save his life, he told me the cave was full of it while here, only the left wall and the ceiling contain a few chunks of iron fused with the rock of the cave."
"Well, it's still enough for what I intend to do." Although it wasn't as much as he expected, Ye Mo didn't mind it.
As long as it could serve his purpose, it wasn't a big deal.
To extract the iron from the rocks, there weren't a thousand ways, Ye Mo grabbed a pickaxe from his pouch and began carefully beating the rocks connected to the pure iridescent iron on the left wall.
After a few hits, the rock would break and the extremity of iron fell down before Ye Mo picked it up and stored it in his pouch.
He did this until he collected all the chunks on the left wall then started attacking the ceiling. He would jump up to reach its level and deliver one blow before he was forced to land down, striking the rock once each time.
The ceiling contained more pure iridescent iron than the left wall, most probably due to the height at which it stood, making Wei Leng unable to retrieve it.
As for Ye Mo, he could still jump this high and deliver one hit at a time, slowly collecting the iron that fell down.
After the time for an incense stick to burn, Ye Mo retrieved all the pure iridescent iron left.
"With this maybe I have a chance to fare well in the year-end competition." Ye Mo clenched his fist.
This competition will see the appearance of not only the geniuses of the Tiger Martial Institute but also the Sky and Golden Institutes.
If it were only so, why not, but this competition also didn't make any distinction between junior and senior disciples.
For him, who was only a 7th layer cultivator without even a complete battle system, beating them was a matter of the weak defeating the strong.
That might not be so bad if he only had to obtain a defensive and investigative battle skill, however, even his other techniques were lagging behind.
Wind flow was only low-tier and couldn't support him much in a battle between experts.
"Even the Stone Breaking Punch becomes less effective as I grow stronger, and Cyclone Kick has scarcely been useful. The problem lies in the way Cyclone Kicks are extremely fast but lack power, if my opponent uses a good defensive technique, he can protect himself from all the kicks even against me, who is a body refining cultivator."
Ye Mo knew his battle skills weren't up to his needs, but he couldn't ask for too much. Considering he entered the institute less than a year ago, his growth was still incredible.
That's why he needed to compensate for his battle skills with other things to have a chance and reach first place in the competition.
All this made him desire even more the prize of a peak-tier Yellow Class battle skill.
After his reflection, Ye Mo took a chunk of pure iridescent iron in his hand then walked near the center of the enclosure before he stopped.
On the ground before him was a hole with unknown depths as he stood at its edge.
This bottomless pit—he noticed it first when reaching the place, but the pure iridescent iron quickly took all his attention.
Now that he retrieved all of it already, he could focus on this peculiarity.
The hole was large enough for two men to jump inside together, however, the pure iridescent iron was barely enough to give a view to the surroundings much less the depth of this hole, and now that they were all taken, the place was plunged in darkness once again.
The chunk he took in his hand was just enough for him to see the edge of the hole so he wouldn't fall.
Ye Mo took a stone from his pouch and threw it in the hole.
The stone was immediately devoured by the darkness while he patiented.
After half a minute, there was still no sound echoing as the stone seemed to never reach the ground.
"This hole is so strange, what could there be below?" As soon as this thought emerged, it was impossible to repel it.
"Wei Leng couldn't have explored its depths, he would just die from the fall. He probably took a bit of iron and left satisfied, but with my abilities, I should be able to go see what's inside."
Since he already completed his objective in coming here, he could as well explore further.
Ye Mo grabbed the blood tracking fly in the palm of his hand and jumped down.
He quickly attained an impressive speed as he dropped down towards the unknown.
He kept falling, falling and falling!
He thought he would reach the end pretty quickly, but seconds passed slowly without any change.
The abyss seemed interminable.
There was no wind in this profound cave, yet he plummeted so fast the stationary air in the bottomless pit seemed to rush against him, deforming his traits, roaring in his ears, and whipping his hair and clothes upward.
He dropped down for so long he started to think he might have been trapped in an endless fall when he suddenly noticed the ground in the distance!
In this deep darkness, the surface of the walls surrounding the landing site was covered in luminescent stones giving a clear view of what had been nothing but gloomy blackness till now.
To slow down his fall and come down relatively unscathed, Ye Mo had many ways, but he didn't choose any as he directly plummeted to the ground like a falling meteor, raising soil, dust, and broken rock fragments in the air in a crash!
Boom!
Ye Mo hit straight as a ramrod, the force detonating through the subterranean chamber with a thunderous eruption. Stone shattered beneath him in an explosive ring, the ground fracturing like glass under impossible pressure. The cavern walls shook for a time before the tremors rippling outward gradually lessened.
When the dust subsided, Ye Mo was found in a pitiful state, his legs completely shattered at various points in a gruesome, bloody sight and even his waist was broken. His left arm that supported his body next during the crash was bent in a way that it seemed to give someone directions.
His body was buried in the earth up to the chest, stopping just below his arms, like a mole poking its head out of the ground.
In the sudden crash, one of his eyeballs went halfway out of its socket and Ye Mo used his only valid arm to push it back inside.
Enduring the discharge of pain sent to his brain and relying on his willpower to keep conscious, Ye Mo activated Endless Vitality battle skill.
The injuries he sustained were so serious that the healing battle skill had an immediate effect as the limbs could be seen turning straight again and the wounds on his body closing up.
The reason he didn't mitigate the fall was precisely due to Endless Vitality.
Even if he reduced the speed at which he dropped down, in the best scenario he would still suffer minor wounds, these injuries would become bothersome in the long run, being slow to heal, and he wouldn't have been in optimal condition to explore the rest of the cave.
Directly enduring the fall head-on and suffering such cruel injuries to heal quickly with Endless Vitality was the most effective method.
In a bit more than a minute, Ye Mo pressed his palm against the floor and pushed, wrenching his lower body out of the ground. When he stood up, he was in top condition.
His clothes were drenched in his own blood and more of it pooled in the hole he just left, but no injuries remained on his body.
Of course, few would come up with this kind of barbaric way to sort out this situation and even if they did, they still needed to be a body refining cultivator to survive the fall. Then not losing consciousness and dealing with the injuries was again another story.
Treating oneself and others like puppets, pursuing maximum efficacy, demonic resolution!
Ye Mo opened his right hand and the blood tracking fly came out, flapping its wings and flying around. It was protected during the crash and came out unharmed.
The human treaded in the long and narrow cave followed by a bug, with the firm intention to see it through, as he felt it was all the more mysterious.